White Christmas anyone?

A fresh snow fall is so pretty - easy for me to say as I enjoy living in sunny southern California!

The spiffy Spanish Zone elders won cleanest cars award this month!

I don't think I've seen Ryan look more happier than in his mission pictures

Que onda?!

What an amazing week!! It was full of miracles and this next week is going to top it! That was a neat experience you had mom! Thanks for sharing that with me. Yeah it is just the craziest thought, even for me, that for 2 years I am walking up to random people and telling them about the restoration of the gospel...I don't know if that will ever set in for me! It is so much fun though and it just really makes you feel so good knowing that you are doing what Jesus Christ would do. You know how much I love trips to LA, so that was fun to hear about and see the pictures. All the girls that I knew look basically the same, just older. There seems to be a lot of new faces though!

I have not gotten the Christmas card, and Sis. Pitcher is holding the Christmas packages until December 14 at transfers next week, so that is when I should get everything. Maybe you should send packages through USPS because it isn't fun paying money for every package I get. Yeah transfers are next week, I am pretty sure I'll be moving. 7 months in one area is a veryy long time, that is about 1/3 of my mission! We'll see where the Lord needs me. Sooo, this week was basically amazing like I said. The blessings are pouring in. Here is the first miracle we had, and I will just cut and paste it out of my email to President:

We were working with a lady named Luisa a while back (she's the lady who we gave a blessing to, but she wanted her husband to do it). A couple weeks ago her husband answered the door and was very upset, telling us to never come by the house again. That shot our spirits down but we decided to respect his decision. Last Monday night we had the strongest impression to put Luisa's name down at 1:30 pm, right after DDMs. When went by, she answered and lets us in. We made sure that her husband was home, and yes he happened to randomly be home, but he was not sitting in the discussion with us. She asked us why we had not passed by in a while, so I guess her husband did not tell her that he had kicked us out basically. Anyways we get talking about a few different gospel topics, and Luisa says that the doctors still do not know what she has, and she is wondering why God has not taken her yet. She says "Well I have not been baptized before, and I know that I need to do that". We firm her right there on the spot and she accepts 100% to be baptized on Christmas Day! It was really neat to see that sudden committment and we are excited, she has changed so much this week. Her 9 year old son should be joining her in the font, but it is not quite a firm date yet for him. Seriously though, how interesting is it the way the Lord works. I thought all hope was lost with Luisa, but the Lord knew all along the situation and kept prompting us. We had been praying that her husband's heart would be softened, and now he doesn't say anything about us coming over and teaching Luisa. She is so prepared! And yes we did get in and were able to teach Diana and her family. We took Sis Amaya with us and her son Brian who just got back from his mission! (I now understand how mom is going to be when I get home haha, but I mean that in a good way mom!) Her husband was working, but her 3 kids (13, 11, and 9) listened in. The lesson was all over the place. We planned on the plan of salvation with all the rough times their family has had with cancer, and about half way through it switched to the Doctrine of Christ, then it went into apostasy and restoration so we could explain authority to her. Then all of a sudden she looked at the time and said they had to go, so the kids jumped up and started to get ready to go. Then the Amayas began to exchange info with her, and we had not fulfilled our purpose yet in inviting them to be baptized! So I got her attention and said this was the most important part of the lesson! So I started to go into it and we invited her and her family to be baptized on the 25th of December....and she said yes! She wants to do it, but she said she wants to talk to her husband, she wants to have her kids learn more before they make that decision. Probably the biggest issue is that she is having surgery on Dec 16 and again in January, so she is on pool restriction right now! We are praying so hard that the Lord will make something happen so that she with her family can be baptized on Christmas Day.

So there you go, it was a pretty legit week. Just sayin. Heavenly Father is really blessing His children in this area, and I have been an eyewitness. White Christmas anyone??

Real quick mom...you can call us Christmas day between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm for 45 minutes, so figure out what time would be best! (so between 9 and 1 your time) love you!!!

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Draper